SEO Boss predicts that SWTOR could be the last paid subscription based MMO.

As we all know, competition in the MMO industry has never been so fierce. Battling between launch dates to capitalize on profits or rather to perfect the game. Developers have been put in the hot seat for quite some time already.

With more and more MMO games switching from subscription based to become a free-to-play model, Sony Online Entertainments Boss, Smedly, predicts that Star Wars: The Old Republic (SWTOR) may be the last MMO to use a subscription based model.

Smedley said:

There’s another large juggernaut coming out soon in Star Wars: The Old Republic from EA/Bioware. That’s a game that I think has a legitimate shot at a 2 million subscription user base and I believe they will stick with the subscription method. This is going to be the last large scale MMO to use the traditional subscription business model. Why do I think that? Simply put, the world is moving on from this model and over time people aren’t going to accept this method. I’m sure I’m going to hear a lot about this statement. But I am positive I’m right.”

He also reckoned & reasoned that this was also due to the economic climate that wasn’t doing too good.

“Economic times are hard out there and a recurring subscription is something that glares at you from a credit card bill every month. For some people, saving money starts with getting rid of subscriptions that hit the credit card.”

Tell us what you think subscription based games will fair in the future.

More advanced contents such as tips, hints and strategies is shared over at SWTOR Guide.

Below is an overview to Skill Tree and Specialization Guide. More detailed content and coverage of the topic could be found in this SWTOR Complete Guides Bundle.

The classes in Star Wars the Old Republic are further broken down into advanced classes. The availability of SWTOR advanced classes makes it possible for gamers to further customize their characters to suit their playstyle. At the moment, each class offers two advanced classes. Although the option lets gamers further specialize themselves, the advanced classes will have the same background story. Star Wars the Old Republic has kept it this way to ensure a well balanced game. The specializations will let players take on different roles when playing in parties and have different combat styles throughout.

Each SWTOR advanced class have their own set of abilities and skills. In other words, if you play a Jedi Guardian or a Jedi Sentinel, you will find that they offer very different abilities although they are both branches of the Jedi Knight class. The advanced classes will also, however have a set of what is called a shared skill set which basically marks them as Jedi Knights.

Before being able to choose an advanced class in Star Wars the Old Republic, you would need to first select the base class to play. How different is ‘different’ when it comes to the advanced classes? Here’s an example for you. The Jedi Guardian is, in more common terms, coined as the tank while the Jedi Sentinel is a damage dealer, aka DPS. Once you hit level 10, you would be able to make your SWTOR advanced class choice.

In practice, when choosing your advanced class, you are actually choosing the skill and allocating more points to certain skills. The use of skill trees in Star Wars the Old Republic is very much like most other MMORPGs. As you level up your character, you also gain skill points along the way. Adding these points to your skill tree enables you to further specialize your character. In SWTOR, there are a total of three skill trees you could spend points on simultaneously.

Here’s an overview of the SWTOR advanced classes:

Jedi Consular
The two specializations or so called advanced classes are Shadow and Sage. As a Jedi Shadow, you would be playing a mid-ranged damage dealer with tanking abilities and a long-ranged damage dealer with healing skills as a Jedi Sage.

Jedi Knight
The choices for the Jedi Knight is as a Jedi Guardian or a Jedi Sentinel. As a Guardian, you would be playing a tank with abilities to inspire your team. As a Jedi Sentinel, you would be playing as a primary damage dealer.

Smuggler
The two advanced classes for the SWTOR smuggler are the Gunslinger and the Scoundrel. Both classes uses the pistol, long ranged and short ranged respectively.

Trooper
The two options for the Trooper class are the Commando and Vanguard. Vanguards are known for their defensive abilities, thus, specializing as a tank. The Commando deal heave damage with their massive blasters.

Bounty Hunter
The first Bounty Hunter advanced class is the Powertech. As a Powertech you would be playing as a tank with mid-ranged damage dealing abilities. As a Bounty Hunter Mercenary, you would be a ranged-DPS with healing skills.

Imperial Agent
The two choices for Imperial Agents are Operative and Sniper. The first offers a combination of damage dealing and healing abilities. The second, the Operative, specializes as a ranged-DPS.

Sith Inquisitor
The advanced classes for the Sith Inquisitor are Sorcerer and Assassin. As a Sorcerer, you would be using force lightening to deal randed damage and heal allies. As an Assassin, you’re skills revolve around stealth and melee DPS.

Sith Warrior
Sith Warriors have two advanced classes to choose from as well which are the Marauder and the Juggernaut. The Juggernaut can take both defensive and offensive stance whereas the Marauder is a pure damage dealer.

Here’s an introductory guide to SWTOR Combat, for more in-dept information and gaming insights, check out this SWTOR Guide.

Storyline what? All we hear now is how great the story-telling in Star Wars The Old Republic is and how much players will be able to walk down their own path with different choices they make. Whether you choose the light of the dark side, this post doesn’t really care. We want to see action, action and action. Watch this latest action-packed video on how SWTOR fans will experience combat within the game.

A very controversial topic that has come up and discussed in much detail is the story of “Same-Sex Relations” in SWTOR MMO. This latest issue has been a big concern for many gamers who favor the notion or disapprove of this action. Nevertheless, Bioware initially stated that gamers would only be able to experience mixed-gender romantic relations but after many cries from the fans,Bioware decided to add it in.

Newsrama is reporting that Bioware has heard the cries of a thousand fan voices and has been more than willing to add in same-sex romance. They wrote “BioWare originally announced that players and their companions in “Star Wars: The Old Republic” would only be able to experience mixed-gender romantic relationships. After many inquiries from fans asking the developer to explain the decision, earlier this week a new forum post by Stephen Reid, the senior online community manager for the game, showed up on the company’s official website announcing that those fans had been heard and same-sex romance will be added to the game.”

Bioware has issued this statement to all fans:

“Due to the design constraints of a fully voiced MMO of this scale and size, many choices had to be made as to the launch and post-launch feature set. Same gender romances with companion characters in ‘Star Wars: The Old Republic’ will be a post-launch feature. Because ‘The Old Republic’ is an MMO, the game will live on through content expansions which allow us to include content and features that could not be included at launch, including the addition of more companion characters who will have additional romance options.”

Here’s an overview of SWTOR. For more information and gameplay recommendations, check out this SWTOR Guide.

In the past week, community manager Stephen Ried annouced on the official SWTOR forums that all those who were invited to join the first Beta Testing Weekend is confirmed to get re-invites for a future undisclosed beta testing weekend.

“Today we re-invited all testers who were invited to our Beta Testing Weekend #1 back to a future Beta Testing Weekend (which will happen on as yet unspecified date). I wanted to give you a little insight into why, and clear up confusion.

These testers were not re-invited to a Beta Testing Weekend for this weekend. We’re still internally testing the next major build of the game. As we’ve said before, when we’re ready to give everyone a date for the next Beta Testing Weekend, we’ll announce it.

Why are they being re-invited? Because we feel for a significant proportion of those invited to test during Beta Testing Weekend #1, they did not have an optimal testing experience. As I mentioned before, we had some issues, including some people not receiving an invite, and others being unable to get the client in time because of issues with their acceptance of their invite. With those factors in mind, we felt that because many people did not experience the game, it was worthwhile to re-invite everyone.”

Great news to all again as Star Wars: The Old Republic (SWTOR) will be playable for gamers at this years GAMEfest. GAMEfest official Facebook page announces that SWTOR will be available and developer presentation for games liek Soulcalibyr V, Batman Arkham City and various other titles.

This article is a good starting point to learn about Smuggler Skills & Progression. Check out this SWTOR Smuggler Guide for more advanced details, insights and gameplay tactics.

Finally the hour has come for all Star Wars: The Old Republic fans. The wait was finally over last Friday as players were waiting for new updates.Revealed last Friday was the progression of the SWTOR Smuggler Class. View the video below and see if you can pick up some of the Smugglers abilities and armor sets. Watch how the Smuggler plays fights using misdirection and various other forms to enable sucker punches. Also see how the Smugglers are the master of the dual blasters.

This article provides a preliminary guide for SWTOR, more advanced content such as related gameplay strategies could be found in this SWTOR Complete Guides Bundle.

I know this post is a little late, but nevertheless here it is. Over at PAX Prime, Bioware confirmed the beta weekend and which week it started for Star Wars: The Old Republic. They also featured an Alderaan PvP Warzone and how it rolls out. The most revealing part of the show was about the Open World PvP that everyone knew for the first time. Here are some of the details

– Many neutral planets up for grabs with multiple control points (ie. bases, and turrets)

– Planet Ilum was the planet used as a reference

– If a faction takes control of planetary defences, bombing runs can be called in on opposing base

– Players will receive Valor and Mercenary points for participation. Mercenary points can be exchanged for the best PVP gear

Let’s hope more will be revealed after the Beta Weekend. While we wait, here’s a video link about Alderaan PvP.

Yes we all know and are saddened by the end of Gamescon but just when spirits are down, Bioware has released a highlights video of the full conference for all those who missed the show and still miss the conference. So for all those who missed Gamescon in Germany, stay put infront of your screens and hopefully this video will give you a glimpse into what the fuss about Star Wars the Old Republic is all about.

Fans of SWTOR now have a slight glimpse of joy as Frank Gibeau as now they know that the release of this huge MMO will be tied closely with the Beta. With 2 million people signed up for the beta and even though pre-order sales have shot through EA’s pre-order records, there is still a lot that can go wrong in an MMO launch. If you recall previous MMOs in the past like WOW and other MMOs, their launch caused a massive server problem trying to uphold the millions of players.

“We’re driving towards a date, but… [we] …want to make sure that these services can last a decade… It is definitely tied to the beta test feedback that’s ongoing and so far, so good. We feel good about the date that we’re heading towards but you’re right, you could have a Crazy Ivan show up in the September/October beta test and be like, ‘wow, I’ve got to fix that’.”

“The other thing is, the technology of standing these things up and then getting all the server farms to work together, talk to one another, store character records… it’s extraordinarily complex and so we want a very stable experience.”

“We don’t want to happen to us what happened to WoW and a couple of other services where in the first week there were queues trying to get on to the servers, the entire service crashed — we don’t want that to happen. So we need to nail and make sure that it’s up 24/7 and [that] it’s high quality.”

In summary, the rumors heard a few months ago through EA’s marketing distribution has led us to believe that we are in the plans for something very big and that Bioware is not in a hurry to get there. All in all, game release will depend mainly on Beta testers on their feedback, so if you are one of them, feel free to share your stories here so we can get an indication if the game might be on time or pushed back.

Bioware, creator of the highly anticipated Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO (SWTOR) reveals from PAX Prime officially the beta test weekend would start on Sept 2nd – assumed from previous announcements. Access to beta weekend events are not only based on whether or not you pre-ordered the game, but rather for everyone. So there’s an equal chance for you or me to get in.

Sign up today from their official SWTOR website and good luck. If your in, congratulations and give a shout out of joy here.

This article provides a preliminary guide for SWTOR, more advanced content such as related gameplay strategies could be found in this SWTOR Complete Guides Bundle.

Focusing on the latest developer walkthrough for SWTOR, today we’ll focus on the Eternity Vault – a high-level Operation or raid, for a total of 8 players.

“A prison discovered buried in the ice on Belsavis is thought to house an ancient and deadly evil that could threaten the galaxy. To counter this threat, General Threnoldt dispatches Imperial forces to investigate the prison and confront the dangers within,”reads BioWare’s description of the video.

A short summary of the story reveals Belsavis landing in escape pods to regroup with other members of the Imperial to battle a small army of droids. In this skirmish, the video will reveal the many different roles that SWTOR classes can perform in battle. Similar to other MMOs, SWTOR has tank, healers, and DPS characters ready to step up and use their skills to advance in battle. Success and victory in this Operation depends on the ability of the team to work cohesively to get through the giant mech waiting to arrive.

*If there are no delays to SWTOR release date, you just might be able to play the SWTOR Eternity Vault later this year.

A new event has captured the hearts and minds of the citizens on the Smuggler’s Moon of Nar Shaddaa. Known as “Huttball,” two teams clash for the amusement of the masses and to win favor with the famed Giradda the Hutt in this new video that highlights just one of the Player-vs-Player (PvP) Warzones in Star Wars™: The Old Republic™!

“The Crew Skills system allows you to take advantage of everything the galaxy has to offer without getting in the way of your adventure! You’ll assign your crew of companions to gather resources, craft useful and valuable items, and even to undertake their own missions, bringing you and the rest of the crew a variety of benefits and rewards.”

A SWTOR rep at Gamescon revealed plans that EA would limit the game supply right at launch date. The purpose of this move is not a marketing move to create an illusion of the game being more popular that it already is. If you rewind back in the past, I think Nintendo was accused of using this strategy with the Wii. Anyhow, the rep at Gamescom says this move is made to avoid server instability, something that all MMOs face during the launch of the game where there are just to many players for the server to handle. This will seem to be the case considering the SWTOR pre-order numbers. The rep also goes to say that it plans to limit copies both at retail and digitally. Apparently no figure as to the maximum number was given but the rep did mention that once the number is reached, digital sales will be the first to be cut off while EA will try to increase its server capacity before allowing more players in the game.

EA is able to limit or pause digital sales is due to the fact that all digital SWTOR copes will be available exclusively through its own Origin shop, therefore making the process relatively simple.
The rep says that game publishers are willing to do this as they are more interested in players having a great and smooth experience rather than sell the game to as many people as possible.

Relating to the statement above, EA’s Frank Gibeau talked about increasing its server capacity to allow millions of players if needed, he described his plan as an “aggressive plan”.

“We’re pretty relaxed about what we’re going to be able to achieve there. We’ll be able to scale up and light up new severs on a fairly quick basis. We’ve got a plan to do that over the months following ship, and we’ve got a lot of capacity built into that,” says Frank.

He went as far as to say that it would only take half a million subscribers for SWTOR to be profitable.“And anything north of a million, as we approach a million and a half or two, starts to look like a great investment, and justifies the entire purchase price… of BioWare in a very positive way,“ he said.

According to many statements, it seems reassuring to know that EA is going to ensure a great gaming experience and hopefully will not face any problems at launch. Bioware is aiming to have the game out this year, but still no release date has been mentioned yet. If worst comes to worst and the game is not released this year, it should be out in early 2012. Those who have already made a SWTOR pre-order will get to play ahead of time.

BioWare announced on 15th August that Star Wars: The Old Republic’s Guild Testing program is started and the first wave of guilds are invited to try out the system already. Any guild that has at least 10 guild members is welcome to register the Guild Testing program. Note that the size of your guild doesn’t matter. Whether you are small or big, your guild might get a chance. Make sure you register your guild at the Guild Headquaters and please go ahead and get yourself acquaintance with the Recruitment Guidelines. Trust me. You don’t want to break their rules.

David Bass also emphasized in the forum that “Please do not contact any BioWare staff requesting access to Guild Testing, or else your guild may be removed from consideration.”
Have I told you how strict they are?

As some of you might have already known, and unluckily for some countries, Star Wars: The Old Republic will not be launching worldwide this year, but BioWare has revealed some news that should thrill some gamers outside of the launch territories.

“SWTOR WILL BE REGION-FREE”

BioWare new MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic still has not set a release date yet but has been revealed and confirmed that the title will not be launched at the same time in all countries. BioWare has also set a no IP or Region lock for players outside of the launch territories meaning those who want to import the MMO Swtor game can do so without worrying that the game will be unplayable. Though gameplay experience may vary due to latency issues.

Community Manager Stephen Reid also explained that the decision to launch the title at different times may sound somewhat unfair to gamers but everything has been done with good reasoning.

“BioWare and LucasArts are completely focused on building an exceptional game and an exceptional game service to go with it. Unfortunately, to achieve the goal of an exceptional game service certain territories could not be serviced at launch. This decision was undertaken with a quality player experience as the primary goal.”

If your thinking about getting the game first, go here for SWTOR Pre-Order.

As SWTOR release date is slowly coming and hoepfully just round the corner, let’s have a look at Star Wars: The Old Republic pre-order numbers which have become quite interesting. Thanks to VGChartz and their data regarding pre-orders of Americas Preorders Chart, 6 August 2011.

Here are America’s pre-order numbers for Star Wars: The Old Republic in the week of August 6, 2011.

This article is a good starting point to learn about Jedi Consular. Check out this SWTOR Jedi Consular Guide for more advanced details, insights and gameplay tactics.

This new Jedi Consular trailer says it all. Learn about the true power of wisdom and how the Jedi Consular studies and wields its power for its many uses. Understand how they have come about using their knowledge of the Force to bring peace to the world, but if trampled upon and peace cannot be reached, the Force makes them quite a dangerous foe.

This new trailer gives great details to those who want to you just what you’ll be expecting if you choose the Jedi Consular and walk down the path of either the Shadow (silent hand of the Jedi Council) or dive deep into the mysteries of the Force as a Sage and help heal and power your allies.